Jesus Christ: The End and Ground of Tolerance

Wheaton College Commencement

Wheaton, IL

The events of September 11 last year unleashed in the Christian
community a tidal wave of compassion and cowardice. The compassion
at ground zero and beyond has been beautiful, and is owing to the
life that remains in the tree of conviction concerning Jesus
Christ. The cowardice is owing to the fact that for many the root
of the tree of conviction has been severed. A long time before
September 11, the ax of unbelief had been laid to the root of
conviction and the withering of courage was predicable.

The cowardice I have in mind, of course, is not the daring of
Todd Beamer on United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania (class of '91).
The cowardice I have in mind is the fear in the hearts of Christian
clergy to make the supremacy of Jesus Christ central in the public,
religious events that followed the calamity, especially when
Muslims were present. When Jesus Christ himself, the crucified
God-man and the Lord of glory, is made subordinate to the
cultivation of amicable, patriotic, religious feeling, he is
crucified afresh on the altar of clerical cowardice. It was a sad
spectacle.

And it has set many of us to pondering with more urgency than we
ever have the issues of tolerance and religious pluralism in
national and global perspective. There are not many issues that the
class of 2002 needs to have more clear than this: what is the
relationship between Jesus Christ and religious pluralism and
tolerance?

Why Tolerance Is Perplexing

The issue of religious pluralism and tolerance in the world is
tremendously complex for several reasons. One is that religion is
woven into life and produces behaviors that may meet intolerant
legal regulation: letting your child die rather than using medical
treatment, smoking Peyote as part of a religious rite, practicing
polygamy, refusing to pledge allegiance to the American flag. And
the issue is complex because with the rise of Islamic states and
the civil implementation of Sharia, the assumptions that we have of
separating church and state are increasingly challenged. And we
find ourselves today, for example, pouring billions of dollars into
the creation of a state in the middle east that is committed to
religious intolerance.

But complexity or no complexity the members of the class of 2002
will have to take a position on this issue. Because neutrality is a
position on this issue, and a very radical one. What is the
relationship between Jesus Christ and religious pluralism and
tolerance? In the few minutes I have I want to plant a seed in the
soil of your mind and heart in the hope that they will grow up and
become a tree of unshakable Biblical conviction and courage and
love.

The Truth About Tolerance

Here's the seed: Jesus Christ, the source and ground of all
truth, will himself one day bring an end to all tolerance, and he
alone will be exalted as the one and only Lord and Savior and Judge
of the universe. Therefore, since Jesus Christ alone, the Creator
and Lord of history, has the right to wield the tolerance-ending
sword, we dare not.

To put it another way: All religious tolerance will end because
Christ will come. And therefore it dare not end until he comes.

To put it a third way: Because Christ alone is absolute and
infinite in his wisdom and power and justice and grace, he alone is
the final end of tolerance, and therefore the present ground of
tolerance.

Or to put it more personally, you not only may, but must, make
room for religious pluralism in the world, not in spite of, but
because of, the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ over all false
religions.

Or, to put it most radically and most violently - and most
Biblically - since the wrath of Jesus will consign to everlasting
punishment all who do not obey the gospel, therefore we must give
place to wrath, and love our enemies. Since Christ alone,
crucified-for-sinners, has the final right to kill his religious
enemies, therefore Christianity will spread not by killing for
Christ, but by dying with Christ - that others might live. The
final triumph of the crucified Christ is a call to patient
suffering, not political success.

Paul's View On Christ's Triumph

Listen to the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10:

The Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not
know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he
comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled
at among all who have believed.

Wheaton College embraces this terrible and glorious truth with
these words:

WE BELIEVE in the blessed hope that Jesus Christ will soon
return to this earth, personally, visibly, and unexpectedly, in
power and great glory, to gather His elect, to raise the dead, to
judge the nations, and to bring His Kingdom to fulfillment.

WE BELIEVE in the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust,
the everlasting punishment of the lost, and the everlasting
blessedness of the saved.

In other words, Wheaton College does not believe in eternal
tolerance. Wheaton College and every honest professor who signs
this statement believe that religious tolerance will one day end.
And, unless I judge wrongly, Wheaton College also believes that
religious pluralism and tolerance in the world will remain, and
must remain, until Christ himself, in person, puts it to an
end.

What Jesus Said About His Own Triumph

In the last hours of his life in answer to Pontius Pilate Jesus
said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this
world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be
delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world"
(John 18:36).

This does not mean that the kingdom of Christ has no impact on
this world. The salt and light and truth and beauty that the
kingdom of Christ brings to this world are inestimable. What it
means is that this kingdom does not advance by the sword. To spread
the gospel and establish the church of Christ and transform the
world, Christ puts one sword into the hands of his people: the Word
of God.

And in that Word he says, "Repay no one evil for evil . . .
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God,
for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the
Lord'" (Romans 12:17, 19). The vengeance of Christ, and the final
end of tolerance, is the ground of love, not violence.

Therefore Christian graduates of Wheaton College will not play
the Joshua of the conquest of Canaan, which was a
redemptive-historical season of savagery and judgment, appointed by
God for a limited time and place. But now with the coming of Jesus
into the world and the kingdom of God being taken away from Israel
(Matthew 21:43) and given to a people bearing the fruits of it from
every tribe and tongue and nation-Palestinian, Jew, Saudi, Afghani,
Latino, Chinese-a new time and a new way is here. The way of
suffering and patience and love and courage, persuading and
pleading with the world to be reconciled to God.

My Question as a Prayer

Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and
consume them? (Luke 9:54). No, you don't know what spirit you are
of. Come, walk with me toward Jerusalem, we have other villages to
reach.

Lord, an enemy has sown weeds with the wheat in the world. Do
you want us to go pull them up? No. Let them grow. At harvest time
I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in
bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew
13:30).

God, should we fight to spare our Christ the shame of rejection
and the cross? No. Put your sword away. Join my Son on the Calvary
road. Show by your willingness to rejoice in unjust treatment for
Christ's sake that your treasure is in heaven, and that you know
the day is coming when all tolerance will cease, and Christ alone
will be exalted. Let that be your joy and your hope, class of 2002.
Follow the crucified Christ in patient suffering. Don't kill to
spread your faith. Die to spread your faith. Christ is the end and
the ground of your tolerance and your suffering. Give place to
wrath. Love your enemies.

May the seed of this message find good soil in the class of 2002
so that you become unshakeable trees of conviction and courage and
love.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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